Unbelievable Interruptions

“Every time something bad happens, I seem to learn from it.”

“I’m just looking for a job right now.”

“I’m just ready to get control back over my life.”

“Even the simplest things are so hard out here.”

Client: “Can I please have a hug?”

ROC Member: “Yes, of course you can!”

*hugs*

Client: “Thank you… I don’t get many nice touches nowadays…”

R.O.C. Member: “Hey, do you mind if I ask your name?”

Client: “I’m nobody.”

R.O.C. Member: “I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that. What was it?”

Client: “I’m nobody; I’m not a person.”

R.O.C. Member: “Oh man… if that’s what you’ve heard out here, I just want to say that isn’t true. I see you, and I can acknowledge that you’re a human just like me.”

Client: “Alright… I’m going to go now. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m not from here, so I don’t really know where anything is.”

“I was sitting down on a bench the other night, and out of nowhere this guy came up and sprayed me in the face with bear mace. And then they tried to start beating me, but I fought back with everything I had. But they did steal my bag.”

“I love these new shoes. They are so nice! I hate that I am going to mess them up walking around out here, but I don’t have any other choice.”

“I didn’t get hit by a car. I got run over by a car. There is a huge difference. I am just blessed to still be breathing.”

“I can’t believe you found us! No one else has found us yet! You’re such an angel! I just really can’t believe it!”

“I have to move what little I do have left after the bulldozing, or all the rest of it will be gone too.”

“They stole our dogs! Those dogs are my life! They’re like my kids!”

“I can’t go back to treatment. I have a warrant out on me. Please don’t send anyone after me. I am only telling you all this because I can tell you care about me, and I can trust you!”

“It’s not about where you live, but how you live.”

As human beings we, at times, tend to get stuck in our habits, routines, ways of thinking, beliefs, and patterns of living our lives. Each of these things is different for us all, but the summation of these creates what we call normal.

Sometimes the only way for these habits, routines, thoughts, beliefs, and patterns of living to be changeable or moveable is to experience an unbelievable interruption. These can be powerful regardless of whether or not they are positive or negative in nature.

When there are the negative, unbelievable interruptions of thieves stealing; of major injury due to being run over by a car; of a bulldozer demolishing where we call home; of being assaulted, a person’s normal ways of thinking, believing, and living shift from the lessons learned.

When there are the positive, unbelievable interruptions of two people hugging that society wouldn’t expect to hug, of someone truly seeing and acknowledging another person’s humanness for the first time in a long time, of being found in the middle of a large expanse of woods after being searched for for 40 minutes, of being told you have been referred to a housing program after being homeless for 8 years, a person’s normal ways of thinking, believing, and living shift from the lessons learned.

What we do at the R.O.C. is so impactful for the lives of our clients and for the homeless services industry here in Chattanooga.

That impact is created for our clients through the unbelievable things we want and get to do for the positive benefit of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness on our streets.

That impact is created for our local homeless services industry through interrupting the typical models of how to deliver and create access to services for those experiencing homelessness.

At R.O.C. the services are brought directly to where people are surviving. Instead of people who are surviving being required to come and find the services themselves.

At R.O.C. there is no one in charge. No one owns the R.O.C. There is not one overruling agency that runs the RO.C. It is a cooperative in every sense of the word. We all agree to an ethical conduct agreement that is rooted in loving and respecting those we encounter. There is no room for pride here. Pride is the enemy of our progress. We, and those we are aiming to help, have no time or tolerance for statements like

“Well, my group cares more about people on the streets. And we do things a better way because we love them more.”

“What we are doing is more important than what you are doing for them. We fight the bigger battles.”

“Our agency doesn’t need to work with any other agency, because we have this much money, or we have this many resources on our own.”

“It looks like we do all the same things, so why work together?”

“Oh, we have to be careful partnering with that agency, because they compete for some of the same funding as we do.”

(All of the above are real-life statements.)

At the R.O.C. we are aiming to interrupt all of this noise and say,

“This work isn’t a competition. All of our similarities and some of our differences should create even more space for us all to work together as much as possible. People’s lives are depending on us too, so let’s not let pride cause their lives to be cut even shorter.”

(Pictured below are some of the unbelievable interruptions we came across this week:

1st: We came across some clients as they were struggling to move this mattress to their camp nearly 100 yards away. So R.O.C. members quickly tossed the mattress on top of the outreach van to assist with the move.

2nd: It is unbelievable how often outreach is interrupted by trains. There are opportunities to be seized and lessons to be learned, though. This particular train allowed us to slow ourselves down enough and take some extra time with two clients. We got their initial housing assessments completed during this time, and they shared with us the wisdom that “it isn’t about where you live, but how you live.”

#ROCAndRoll

#ROCRetrospective

#UnbelievableInterruptions

#WeArentNormal